Amid Market Gloom, Fund Manager Battles Against Jargon

By Deal Journal

Mark Cobley, of Financial News, files this dispatch from the front line of the battle against jargon. Financial News is a Dow Jones publication and a contributor to Deal Journal.

In these times of doom and gloom, it is good to know there is a lighter side of the asset-management industry. We are speaking, of course, of Scottish fund manager Martin Currie Ltd. and the enjoyment to be had from perusing its list of words and phrases now banned from client reports and trustee meetings.

Two that caught our eye are “foreigner”–said to be common in Japanese market reports but just a 1980s pop group to the fund manager–and “space,” which Martin Currie suggests is the “final frontier of bad English.”

Amusing it might be, it also a reminder that in this difficult market environment, there has never been a greater need for clarity and precision, as well as a mutually comprehensible vocabulary for financial experts and the outside world. So here is the full list of now-banned phrases, together with the reasoning behind each one:

“Bets”–Unnecessarily macho. Clients hate it. Use “positions” instead.

“Going forward”–Almost always unnecessary. Remove it and improve it.

“Backdrop”–Overused metaphor. Replace with “environment”.

“On the back of …”–Ditto. Better alternatives are “following” or “after”.

Comments (5 of 6)

"headwinds" would correspond to "negative trends" and "tailwinds" to "positive trends"—this article inverted the order. Maybe the confusion about which way with wind is blowing proves the point about it being a poor metaphor.

5:30 pm February 6, 2009

Susan Weiner wrote :

Excellent advice!

5:23 pm February 6, 2009

Dave K wrote :

How could using basis points be more confusing than not using it? For example, in the case of a hypothetical mortgage is Martin Currie trying to explain a rate that fell from 6% to 5.25% or from 6% to 5.955%??

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